https://twitter.com/AFreddyRamirez/status/1630675440649089028
By Charles Rabin
Miami Herald
MIAMI — Vernon Kelson might have believed he was well within his First Amendment rights when he posted an Instagram video of himself in a car waving an AK-47 and threatening the police officer in the patrol car next to him.
But Miami-Dade Police didn’t.
In the video posted under the name Getbackgang.Hank, Kelson, 22, while holding the rifle outside the passenger seat window, repeats, “If they pull this b---- over, it’s going to go down.”
On Monday, it went down.
Two days after Kelson’s social media post, police with the help of license plate readers tracked him in South Miami-Dade and took him into custody. Speaking to homicide detectives at Miami-Dade Police headquarters in Doral, police said Kelson admitted that the rifle was real — but laughed as he told them he had no intention of harming any police officers.
That didn’t matter much to police, though, who charged Kelson with four felony counts including a written threat of bodily injury, displaying a firearm while committing a felony, open carry of a weapon, and being wanted on a separate warrant. He remained jailed at the Turner Guilford Knight correctional center on Tuesday.
Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez was among those not amused by Kelson’s alleged actions, and he said so in prepared statement on Monday.
“Law enforcement officers put on their uniforms every day and leave their homes not knowing if they will return. I will not tolerate anyone, in any way, to threaten my officers or anyone bearing the badge on their chest,” Ramirez said.
Police said they weren’t looking for a post by Kelson when they saw it. A detective working Saturday afternoon was simply scouring Instagram when he came across the post by Kelson, someone he said he was familiar with.
Detectives then contacted the officer in the patrol vehicle on the video — who said he hadn’t seen Keson waving the assault rifle on the roadway, although the officer was in the area at the time, near Southwest 184th Street and 117th Avenue.
Then on Monday, police noticed Kelson’s post on Instagram Live and traced it to a burgundy Lexus. A few hours later, a license plate reader spotted the Lexus on Southwest 160th Street. And Robbery Intervention Detail detectives soon took him into custody, without incident, at 1851 SW 158th Terr.
Once in custody, police said, Kelson told detectives that the video was about a month old but that he posted it Saturday to “look cool to friends.” He said the AK-47 belonged to a friend and that he didn’t have access to it anymore.
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